Heâs a forensic anthropologist, but heâs also a search dog handler. Heâs going to help us look for the boy. Ben, this is Mark Collier, one of our crime scene specialists.â
Collier nodded. âGood to meet you. Look up on the ceiling and this nearest wallâjudging from the spatter patterns, someone swung hard, connected, then stood over him here and made sure he was a goner. You should show him the boyâs room, Frank. Dr. Sheridan, if I can be of help, let me know.â
âWho found the body?â
âToller has a hunting buddy who came by for him about five this morning. Got a little worried when he saw the car here but didnât get an answer, so he looked in the window and saw this.â
Frank carefully led Ben down a hallwayâboth of them doing their best not to disturb another technician, who was trying to raise prints from the hall door. âNote that there are no visible bloodstains leading away from the body or on the hall carpet up to this point,â Frank said, as they reached a bedroom door. âSo, my guess is the same as yoursâToller didnât get up again after he received that blow. But what worries me is that there are some bloodstains in the boyâs bedroom, and some blood drops leading from here.â
Ben saw crime lab markers near a few blood spots on the hall floor. He bent closer, and saw that they were slightly elongated, as if whoever was bleeding was moving. He looked toward the end of the hall, where sunlight came in through the barred window of a door. âThat leads to the backyard?â
âYes.â
âWhy the bars? Is there some treasure in the kidâs room?â
âFar from it. Take a look,â Frank said, gesturing to a doorway to the left. âAt first glance, I wondered if this room was some sort of guest room. Didnât seem lived in. Especially not by a boy. Toller had a gun collection in his own room. I suspect thatâs what the bars were for.â
When he looked in Lexâs room, Ben agreedâit didnât look like a childâs room at all. No toys were visible, just a few school books, aligned with the corner of a small desk. No posters or pennants on the walls. No radio, no CD player. No computer or electronic games. Not so much as a teddy bear. Another crime lab worker was photographing the two exceptions to the orderlinessâthe shattered glass of a picture frame and bloodstains on the pillow of the otherwise neatly made twin bed. Some of the shards of glass from the frame were bloodstained, too. In the photo, a thin, dark-haired woman held Lex in an affectionate hug. âIs this the boyâs mother?â Ben asked.
âI donât think so. Neighbors say the mother was blonde, and died about four years ago. When I described the woman in the photo, they told me sheâs probably his auntâhis motherâs sister. She was over here last night, and two of the neighbors heard loud arguing.â
âYouâve tried to reach her?â
âPete just talked with her.â
âSo does your partner think the boy could be with her?â
âShe says no, but Peteâs still not sure about that. With the blood you see hereâyou can understand why Iâd like to have Bingle and Bool go through the place.â
âYes. Iâll start with Bool. Is there a laundry hamper here?â
There were socks and underwear in the hamper, along with a pair of pajamas. âAnybody else touch these clothes today?â
Frank asked Collier, who said, yes, there was a preliminary look through the hamperâthe outfit the kid was last seen wearing was not with the other laundry, so they were assuming he was still in his jeans and T-shirt.
âWhy donât you pre-scent the dog with that bloody pillowcase?â Collier asked.
âBecause I donât know that the blood is the childâs.â
âOh.â
âMaybe the